Day 418 - My Port

A little over a year ago I had my port surgery.

When you are facing 16 rounds of chemo your Dr.'s strongly encourage that you have a port implanted into your body.

For those of you who have been wondering all this time what a port is, let me explain.  It is a small device, about the size of a quarter, that is installed beneath the skin.  A catheter connects the port to a vein, in my case my jugular.

So for the last year, whenever I received treatment, a needle would be inserted into my port, the drugs would flow through the catheter, into my jugular, and then out to my bloodstream.

Today it came out, and I finally got a chance to look at it up close and personal.

As any survivor of cancer will tell you, there are certain milestones that you look forward to.  This was a major milestone I wanted to get to.

It means I am done with treatment (actually only one more to go, but I will take it the old fashioned way).

It means I lived to see it removed.